Sky to Limit Gambling Ads to One per Commercial Break from New Premier League Season

Sky Wants to crack down on gambling ads amid tumultuous Occasions for UK’s Gaming industry

Pay-TV giant Sky announced plans to significantly limit the amount of gambling ads that are revealed across its programing amid rising concern over the overexposure of vulnerable individuals to gambling-related advertising content.

Sky will reduce the amount of gambling ads to a single per commercial break on each one of the channels for which it sells advertising slots, such as Sky Sports. The company will look to execute the changes ahead of the start of the new Premier League season in August 2019.

At present, gambling ads are prohibited from being shown prior to a 9 pm watershed in the uk. However, the ban does not apply to live broadcasts of sports events. Up to four gambling spots can be seen during each commercial break and slots during live sports on Sky Sports are usually inhabited by advertisements promoting the widely popular in-play betting.

Sky’s new restrictions will cover advertisements of all types of gambling products, such as sports betting, online casino, poker, and bingo. They will apply to all times of the day, such as in the evenings and the middle of the evening.

The pay-TV giant is now making voluntary steps toward restricting gambling advertisements amid calls from accountable gambling organizations and MPs to get a wider regulatory crackdown on the way gambling products are advertised.

As part of its approach to reduce gambling advertisements content across its channels, Sky also announced that it’s creating an AdSmart technology that will enable folks to block gambling advertisements across Sky and Virgin Media TV platforms altogether. The technology will be rolled out in June 2020 across over 140 channels.

Sky said the move is particularly aimed at self-excluded gamblers and individuals with gambling problems who wish to reduce their vulnerability to gambling-related content.

“Our customers are concerned about gambling advertisements on TV — and we know their issues. That’therefore people ’ve committed to restricting the amount of gambling advertisements on Sky and better shielding those exposed to problem gambling. ”

The UK gambling market has been able to advertise its products because 2007 when the Labour government raised strict rules against gambling advertisements. Research firm Nielsen has discovered that operators spent £1.4 billion on advertisements from 2012 to 2017. Nearly a quarter of that amount has been spent to market sports betting products.

Industry beneath Fire

Sky’s planned limitations and brand new ad-blocking technology come as the UK gambling market is facing a backlash for promoting its services also sharply and doing little to stop gambling addiction and help those stricken by it.

And its seems that the business itself is split on the gambling advertising issue. Richard Flint, CEO of Sky Betting and Gambling, a gambling company which Sky previously owned a vast majority stake in, has said recently that while it’s firms ’ obligation to take measures to combat problem gambling, wider advertising restrictions would not help in that struggle .

On the flip side, Kenny Alexander, CEO of GVC Holdings, has come out in support of a blanket ban on gambling commercials showed on TV. The potential implementation of a pre-watershed ban on gambling advertisements has been discussed by the government for several decades, but it seems that such a move may gain more grip amid a wider crackdown on the provision of gambling services in the UK.

The UK retail betting industry is gearing up for a massive clampdown on the highly controversial fixed-odds gaming terminals that will observe the maximum bet customers can place on the machines be reduced from £100 to only £two . But, it became known last month that despite pressure from FOBT critics, the new bet will be implemented at October 2019. The delayed implementation of the modifications has prompted the passing of Sports Minister Tracey Crouch, who has been among the most active lobbyists to get a cut of their maximum FOBT bet.

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